I Married You for Happiness
by
Lily Tuck
Throughout Lily Tuck’s career, she's been praised by critics for her crisp, lean language and sensuous explorations of exotic locales and complex psychologies. From Siam to Paraguay and beyond, Tuck inspires readers to travel into unfamiliar realms, and her newest novel is no exception. Slender, potent, and utterly engaging, I Married You For Happiness combines marriage, m...more
Hardcover, 208 pages
Published
September 6th 2011
by Atlantic Monthly Press
(first published January 1st 2011)
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Early evening, a woman's husband comes home, greets her, goes up to their bedroom and dies. She spends the night by his side, looking back on their happy marriage.
That's the plot, such as it is, to author Lily Tuck's "I Married You for Happiness."
Philip and Nina are worldly, educated, and well-traveled so that the stuff of their otherwise anonymous lives does not weigh the reader down in boring, quotidian minutiae.
She is a painter. He is a mathematician specializing in the field of probabilit...more
That's the plot, such as it is, to author Lily Tuck's "I Married You for Happiness."
Philip and Nina are worldly, educated, and well-traveled so that the stuff of their otherwise anonymous lives does not weigh the reader down in boring, quotidian minutiae.
She is a painter. He is a mathematician specializing in the field of probabilit...more
Lily Tuck
I Married You for Happiness
A Book Review
What is it with me lately? I'm so emotional.
Like a little girl.
How can a small book leave me with a tear in my eye?
I'm a grown man. Real men don't cry.
From the first sentence: His hand is growing cold; still she holds it.
I braced myself. Death in the first sentence! Look out, I thought.
To the last sentence: When he sees Nina at the bedroom window, he stops what he is doing and, straightening up tall, he waves to her.
No more tissues left in the...more
I Married You for Happiness
A Book Review
What is it with me lately? I'm so emotional.
Like a little girl.
How can a small book leave me with a tear in my eye?
I'm a grown man. Real men don't cry.
From the first sentence: His hand is growing cold; still she holds it.
I braced myself. Death in the first sentence! Look out, I thought.
To the last sentence: When he sees Nina at the bedroom window, he stops what he is doing and, straightening up tall, he waves to her.
No more tissues left in the...more
Jan 02, 2013
Laura
added it
"Imagine a teacup falling on the floor and smashing into random pieces," Philip tells his class. "If you were to film this, you could run the film backward and see all the pieces jump back together. Obviously, you cannot do this in ordinary life -- believe me, I've tried although my wife complains that, soon, we won't have any china left." No one laughs. "The explanation for this," he continues, "is that disorder or entropy within a closed system always increases with time -- in other words, le...more
Cort gave me this book for our anniversary and I was quite happy since it is not one I likely would have picked up on my own. The book covers just a handful of hours, beginning shortly after the sudden death of the Nina's husband. It moves swiftly through time as Nina recalls their days together, the minor and major events that created their joined life and led them to the present. The book was enjoyable to read but admittedly I was disappointed by the lack of depth. Given that death was the pre...more
I happened to see this novel on a shelf at the library, was intrigued by the title and more interested when I saw that the author had previously won the National Book Award. Turned out to be a familiar plot-- after a long marriage, husband dies suddenly and wife is left alone. The novel is told from her perspective as she spends a last day/night beside his body, reminiscing about their life together.
What I liked: the book covers only one day, increasing the intensity of feeling; the writing is c...more
What I liked: the book covers only one day, increasing the intensity of feeling; the writing is c...more
Lily Tuck`s novel, I Married You for Happiness, is the story of a woman mourning the sudden death of her husband. It was shortly before dinner when Philip came home from his college teaching position. When Nina calls him for dinner he is dead. She lies by his cold body all night remembering their lives together. The prose is spare and lovely, recalling their joys, passions and pains of their forty-two years together.
Recently, I've read three memoirs about grieving a spouse after sudden death: Jo...more
Recently, I've read three memoirs about grieving a spouse after sudden death: Jo...more
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Based on the title and on the synopsis on the front cover, I assumed that this would be a novel about a woman reminiscing about her 43 year marriage to her husband that had just died. I assume that most people get married to be happy and look forward to happiness in their marriage. The reality of the novel was that the main character, Nora, was a cold-hearted jerk. I would like to hope that it is possible to be married to someone for a long time and not have a blatant affair. In her case, she ob...more
This book tells the fictional story of Nina reminiscing over her and her husband's (Philip's) life through one night after she finds him dead in their bedroom.
She flits from one memory to another before maybe going back to the same time of the previous memory before moving on again, in a sort of stream of consciousness way. For me this made it a rather fragmented book with the best bits being when a memory was expanded in full before she moved on to the next recollection. (This approach means th...more
She flits from one memory to another before maybe going back to the same time of the previous memory before moving on again, in a sort of stream of consciousness way. For me this made it a rather fragmented book with the best bits being when a memory was expanded in full before she moved on to the next recollection. (This approach means th...more
It was an okay book. I borrowed it from my local library expecting something else from what the first few pages I skimmed. The writing style was interesting. I started reading this mid-November and kind of lost interest in it. I finished reading it today since it's nearly due at the library; I had thought it would have been a chore to read, but that wasn't the case. While I didn't care much for the untranslated French, reading about the math and science principles was interesting. My favorites p...more
I won an advanced copy of this novel from First Reads on Goodreads- thank you!
Lily Tuck's exploration of a 40 year marriage from the point of view of the wife upon discovering her dead husband in bed is beautiful and concise. She uses her language sparingly, but is able to convey so much with just one sentence. She effortlessly weaves achronologically between the various stages of the marriage: first meeting, courtship, arguments, vacations, affairs, secrets, suspicions, and even mundane conver...more
Lily Tuck's exploration of a 40 year marriage from the point of view of the wife upon discovering her dead husband in bed is beautiful and concise. She uses her language sparingly, but is able to convey so much with just one sentence. She effortlessly weaves achronologically between the various stages of the marriage: first meeting, courtship, arguments, vacations, affairs, secrets, suspicions, and even mundane conver...more
Here i go again, rating a book i didn't finish. I didn't finish it because it was due back at the library and i had no more renewals. Also i realized i had no attachment to the characters. i didn't care about their story, which surprised me and actually made me feel a little sad. I had put off reading this ever since it was published because i was frightened of the potential to be too affected emotionally. But i really wanted to read it, in part to challenge myself, but in part because it was ab...more
NO SPOILERS!!!
When I choose how many stars to give a book, I simply ask myself did I dislike it (1 star), was it OK (2 stars), did I like it (3 stars), did I really like it (4 stars) or did I find it absolutley, utterly anasing (5 stars). When I am determining the numer of stars I will give a book, I do not analyze why, I just make myself honestly consider how I felt when reading the book. I am giving this book two stars. Then comes the hard part, to determine why I have reacted as I have. I don...more
I read Limbo and Other places a few years ago. At this juncture, I could not (even if under severe duress) tell you about one of the short story characters. Other authors, such as Jhumpa Lahiri and Murakami, have characters that resonate with me for some time.
Married you for Happiness is a full length narrative novel. Though, you should know that I read it at the local bookstore in one sitting. I confidently can claim that it is a very quick read. As you can observe from my currently-reading sh...more
Married you for Happiness is a full length narrative novel. Though, you should know that I read it at the local bookstore in one sitting. I confidently can claim that it is a very quick read. As you can observe from my currently-reading sh...more
“Honey, dinner’s ready”, Nina shouts up the stairs. When her husband doesn’t appear she goes upstairs where he’s gone to lie down after a long day teaching mathematics at a local university. She finds him dead. After the next door doctor confirms Philip’s death she sits vigil through the night reflecting on their long (mostly) lovely life together. They’ve lived in France and visited many parts of Europe, South America and the States. He’s logical yet he believes in God. She’s an artist with no...more
The cover photo of this book suggests that the full title should be: "I married you for happiness BUT..."
Indeed, Lily Tuck's book is a portrait of a marriage reminisced in one night. But was the marriage really ever full of love? I'm still not sure, though main character Nina's first words are "I will always love you." Tuck paints Nina as a wife who often ignores her husband, cheats on him, lies to him multiple times (she hides a big secret) and seems to be, on the whole, a big child. There are...more
Indeed, Lily Tuck's book is a portrait of a marriage reminisced in one night. But was the marriage really ever full of love? I'm still not sure, though main character Nina's first words are "I will always love you." Tuck paints Nina as a wife who often ignores her husband, cheats on him, lies to him multiple times (she hides a big secret) and seems to be, on the whole, a big child. There are...more
As the book begins we realise that the narrator is a very recent widow, having just found her husband dead, and we are hearing her thoughts and reflections upon their marriage and life together. There are no actual chapters, just fairly short paragraphs and page breaks. To begin with, I found this format really interesting; with each paragraph we jump with the narrator to another memory or back to the present. Its not always clear straight away if the current memory is before or after the last,...more
I've been searching for this book. Tried very hard to find a free online version. Finally bought it on Kindle. I came across some excerpts from it a few months back. Since then it's been haunting me.
I've never heard of Lily Tuck before but her style of writing suggests that I've been a fool to miss her work all along. Guess that's the benefit of living in a world of nearly 7billion people - you will never run out of writers to fall in love with at first sight.
Looking forward to the ending. Dread...more
I've never heard of Lily Tuck before but her style of writing suggests that I've been a fool to miss her work all along. Guess that's the benefit of living in a world of nearly 7billion people - you will never run out of writers to fall in love with at first sight.
Looking forward to the ending. Dread...more
So our Book Club was scheduled to read "I Married You for Happiness" by Lily Tuck in October...and then my husband died. Several of the members of the group asked me if I wanted to change the book. I said no, and I'm glad that I did. As a wife sits through the night with her husband after he has died, she remembers different parts of their lives together. Her thoughts tumble from the present to the past and back again. She wonders how she's going to tell their daughter, and then recalls how they...more
This is one of the best books, I've ever read, right up there with "Left Neglected" by Lisa Genova. You've probably gathered that the topic of the book is marriage, but the author tells the story of this marriage in quite a unique way. The story takes place in less than one day, but manages to encompass this couple's entire relationship from the time of their first meeting up until the present day. The husband is a math professor; the wife is a painter. They have on child together, a daughter Lo...more
This beautifully poetic novel chronicles a 40-year marriage with all its thrills and pain and quiet satisfactions. Nina has found her husband dead in bed. She sits with him all night and remembers their life together. Her thoughts are free floating moving from their courtship in Paris to their lives as parents and professionals in America. We learn of Nina's brief affair and the tragic accident that haunts Philip.
Tuck manages this material beautifully. I felt as though I were in the presence of...more
Tuck manages this material beautifully. I felt as though I were in the presence of...more
This book did not move me although it was beautifully, rumatatively written. Too much dwelling on mathematics and sex which felt exhibitionist and boastful. The author is very intelligent but reading this felt alienating rather than enthralling. It is hard to explain but I felt her voice was more repellant than engaging. It was a fast read, almost more a short story than a novel, but still it eluded me. I had no true liking for either character and was really only curious how she would end it.
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This book was the winner of the National Book Award. I don't think I'll ever figure out why... It's a story about a woman who goes upstairs and finds her husband has passed away. Instead of calling anyone right away, she wants one more night alone with him and she remembers scattered bits and pieces of their lives together. The reader discovers that it wasn't a happy marriage and the woman's remembrances are back and forth and all over the place and I think that maybe all these thoughts come tog...more
In a steam of conscious style that mimics the way our thoughts jump through the continuity of life, a wife finds her husband dead lying in bed just before dinner. She spends the night reviewing their marriage with all its ups and downs. She is an artist, her husband is a math professor. We see their lives through her artistic perspective and his love of mathematical principles. I loved the way she stops listening to him when he explains complicated math theories and begins thinking about what to...more
Mar 15, 2013
Jupiter394
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
book clubs
Shelves:
a-club-cpl-lunch,
french
An interesting book, dealing with death and marriage. The style of this book reminds me of Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante in that we painted a picture by a woman in a distressed state. In Turn of Mind it was Alzheimer's; in I Married you for Happiness it is the shock of losing a life partner unexpectedly. We follow the thoughts of Nina as she recollects points in their marriage in a sometimes disjointed way as these thoughts fly through her head over the course of a night. Some might find this a...more
Enjoyable but probably forgettable quicker read. Plot is nothing original of course: woman's spouse dies after a long marriage and she reminisces about their past together. You've seen this in memoir and fictional forms plenty.
Tuck has not made the wife character here very compelling or sympathetic, aside from being deeply shaken by finding her husband passed away. She's a painter, though she has only ever sold a few paintings to friends. She was raped by her husband's cousin, but never says an...more
Tuck has not made the wife character here very compelling or sympathetic, aside from being deeply shaken by finding her husband passed away. She's a painter, though she has only ever sold a few paintings to friends. She was raped by her husband's cousin, but never says an...more
Fiancée, I promise you that, if I should ever find you unconscious in bed I will - unlike Nina - call the paramedics instead of a doctor neighbor. Really? That mere fact alone put me in a sour mood for the rest of this thin novel. The story and characters were really bougy. I hate taxes of martial infidelity like this, with French dialogue and exotic locations and people who use the word sensual to describe artwork.
But I did enjoy the postcard style of storytelling, wherein the reader must keep...more
But I did enjoy the postcard style of storytelling, wherein the reader must keep...more
When I first started this book, I really did not like it. I couldn't really put a finger on why. Yet something compelled me to continue reading. As I journeyed through the night with the narrator, I began to empathize with her insecurities, question and criticize her actions, and understand her ultimate love for her husband. Like most humans, Nina is deeply flawed, but the magic of Tuck's writing is that she creates a character with some deplorable characteristics who is not deplorable herself....more
What I liked the most about this book was the style. And that is something coming from me - I tend to be drawn to well-drawn characters and interesting plots. But in this one, it was the form that really held my attention. It flows so well that I wanted to read it in one sitting. I probably would have if my daughter hadn't started crying in the middle of the night. The book doesn't have any chapters. Instead it is set up in a stream-of-conscious type of form, with short excerpts separated set of...more
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Lily Tuck is an American novelist and short story writer whose novel The News from Paraguay won the 2004 National Book Award for Fiction. Her novel Siam was nominated for the 2000 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. She has published four other novels, a collection of short stories, and a biography of Italian novelist Elsa Morante (see "Works" below).
An American citizen born in Paris, Tuck now divides...more
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An American citizen born in Paris, Tuck now divides...more
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20. Januar, 18:33 Uhr